What Good are the Arts? by John Carey
(Faber, £12.99)
For the sake of argument, let’s say that your drink of choice is Château Lafite, ideally the 1961 vintage. And let’s further say that I regard this drink as unadulterated swill and would always reject it in favour of a tumbler of room-temperature Ribena. You feel superior to me, of course—you regard me as a philistine with an infantile sweet tooth—whereas I regard you as a social climber who prefers to impress others rather than take pleasure in a tasty and refreshing beverage.
And what could an enlightened and disinterested observer say about this divergence of taste? Only a few things with any certainty. He could point out that I don’t know what the Lafite tastes like to you, nor can you know what it tastes like to me (and of course the same obtains for Ribena). He could observe that our choices are likely to reflect many factors about our background that have little directly to do with the taste of wine or of concentrated, fortified fruit syrup. And he could assure us that neither of us is “right” in any absolute, objective sense. What gives me the greater pleasure is the better drink for me, and the same must hold true for you.
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